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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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(MR. BERTRAM Cox.)
I feel I can add little to the exhaustive minutes
already written. It seems to me important that in the highest positions in the Colonial Service there should be an absolute freedom of choice. It is difficult to specify the training (whether out of door or indoor) which produces the qualities which make a good Colonial Governor. In some men they are innate, in others they are developed by training and experience; but that training may have been obtained in different walks of life, military, naval, departmental or commercial. The great point, it seems to me, is to secure that men possessing the necessary qualifications should be procurable from every source, and that we should not be limited to men who have been trained in Colonies only, though, cæteris paribus, such can- didates should no doubt be preferred.
I think it of the utmost importance that a man sent to administer in any subordinate capacity, the government of a Colony should be colloquially familiar with the native language. In West Africa a man should know Hausa and probably Yoruba, in the East he should be able to speak Malay and -Chinese, in the Pacific he should know Fijian, and in East Africa Suahili. This is of paramount im- portance in the case of judicial officers. That a I am afraid it is hopeless judge should be dependent upon the interpreter is to expect to secure a supply most undesirable in any court, that he should be so of judges versed in native habitually in every case is dangerous to the languages.—E. W. administration of justice.
I agree in the view which has been expressed that before a Civil Service on Indian lines can be pressed for, the Colonies must be grouped for administrative purposes.
A general Civil Service seems to me to depend for its realization upon the discovery of a cure for malarial fever, now well within the range of possibility. When this has been discovered, the tropics will be deprived of their worst terror, and West Africa will be as capable of joining the general system as the West Indies. I do not share Mr. Pearson's views as to the undesirability of federation. It may be the confidence which arises from insufficient knowledge, but I believe that the thing can be attained, and it is desirable. I feel the difficulty as to cost of travelling, salaries, etc., but it might be possible to obtain the creation of a common fund con- tributed to by each group and aided by a Treasury grant which would level up salaries and enable us to impose tests and conditions as to passing exam- inations in the language of the group which would not have the effect of discouraging candidates for appointments as a language test might do now.
H. B. C.
9th February.
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(Mr. Lucas.)
As far as I know, wherever Government service is organised, there tend to be three layers of appointments:——
1. Staff appointments, filled at will by the highest authorities, the Queen or the Minister.
2. A higher Civil Service
3. A subordinate Civil Service.
The more organized a service is, the stronger becomes No. 2 at the expense of No. 1. Thus in India, the staff appointments are very few, and the prizes of the Civil Service of India are very large.
The more educated a service is, and the com- munity to which it belongs, the stronger is the tendency of No. 3 to encroach on No. 2, and especially this is the case when there are differences
of race.
Thus, to take the best example, I suppose, administration in the world-India, we have :—
1. Staff appointments.
of
2. Appointments of the Civil Service of India. 3. Appointments of the various provincial ser- vices.
4. Subordinate Civil Service appointments.
Here the appointments in 3 run parallel to those in 2, though not to quite such a high general level.
It is the result of an attempt to prevent natives from being unduly excluded from high office by open competition, and of the constant pressure upwards from below.
Now, with some modification in regard to the Eastern Colonies, where we have in a small way modelled on India, the Colonial Service consists roughly:-
1. Of a large number of staff appointments, 2. Of a large number of subordinate and locally filled appointments.
We can omit professional appointments for sim- plicity's sake, and consider only civil posts.
To the question, Can there be one colonial service in spite of diversities of climate, language, and the like? the answer is that there is one, within limits, already; that is to say, in all the Colonies' Governors, in all the non-responsible Colonies, even in the · Eastern Colonies, Colonial Secretaries and, to some extent, auditors, treasurers, and other high officers are appointed in a uniform way--by selection at will of the Secretary of State, whether from inside or from outside, and can be and are transferred and promoted from one part of the world to another.
We start therefore with having one service of staff appointments, and the questions, it seeins to me, have to be rather restated as follows:--
1. Can a line be drawn between these upper appointments and others more distinct and more. definite than at present?
2. Can these appointments be classified and graded to a further extent than at present?
3. Can most of these upper appointments be converted out of staff appointments into a cove- nanted service, so that all the posts so converted